


Absolution

by maginot



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Kissing, Love Confessions, M/M, Sheith Month 2018, post-season 6, soft and happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 14:06:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15366303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maginot/pseuds/maginot
Summary: With a breath he’s never needed before, Keith steps up behind Shiro, placing a hand on his shoulder and everything inside him goes,oh yeah, right, and his chest feels a little fluttery, his heart skips a beat or three. It’s a gesture that’s so familiar that Keith has enough memories of a hand on a shoulder to fill an entire book. But this time, this time it aches and burns with newness and it makes Keith feel unsteady on his feet.It isn’t just Shiro’s completely white hair, or the fact that he’s been dead and Keith didn’t even know (although that has something to do with it). It’s the unknown question hanging inside every atom and speck of dust that Keith is made up of.Do you remember I love you?





	Absolution

It a week before they’re alone.

Keith’s not sure why he isn’t satisfied until they are. The constant push and pull of a thread spun from need tugs somewhere deep within his stream of consciousness. He’s always aware of it in some way, shape or form. Sure, they ride in the black lion together, but you can’t _really_ focus on anything besides the tasks at hand. Maybe Keith could but Shiro… he doesn’t even think Shiro’s capable of that, even now, especially now— fresh guilt weighing him down and keeping him focused and sharp. 

The few times they’ve stopped to rest so far, Keith has ended up spending most of the time with his mom. He never thought he’d say that, so at first it’s fine and then the thread pulls and his stomach feels too low and he wants nothing more than to just sit next to Shiro for five minutes. Keith imagines himself begging his mom for five minutes like the teenagers on tv that he never got to be. 

He was too busy with life, being an orphan, being angry. He was too busy trying not to disappoint Shiro. He was too busy managing to do so anyway, somehow. 

See, Keith has always loved Shiro— loved him for as long as he’s known him— but it was within the past two years that everything grew and swelled and started to glow and glitter inside of him. The past two years of his life were just mere days for Shiro, but for Keith, that’s the longest they’ve been apart since Kerberos, since Shiro died— for the first time. 

God, he missed Shiro so bad that the pain found a way into his circulatory system and hacked its way into his heart.

Now he loves Shiro, loves him _so bad_.

Shiro is an ineffable presence in Keith’s life. For years now Keith had been trying to figure out how to describe Shiro. Different words have fit from day to day, situation to situation, life experience to life experience.

Keith thinks the best word today, for this particular strange situation, for this particular frustrating life experience— where the thing he wants is so close and so damn far at the same time— the word to use is _everything_. Today, Shiro is his _everything_. 

Keith’s moment comes (finally, finally) during a rest stop of sorts. It started out a battle spawned by a call for help from a planet somewhere along the edge of somewhere Keith has never been, but the battle had been easy, so easy that Keith would have been worried if he knew the Galra weren’t leaderless for the moment. 

The planet has three moons, all lined up from biggest to smallest, and in the oranges and pinks of the sunset, Keith finds Shiro standing on a balcony, looking at all of them. 

With a breath he’s never needed before, Keith steps up behind Shiro, placing a hand on his shoulder and everything inside him goes, _oh yeah, right_ , and his chest feels a little fluttery, his heart skips a beat or three. It’s a gesture that’s so familiar that Keith has enough memories of a hand on a shoulder to fill an entire book. But this time, this time it aches and burns with newness and it makes Keith feel unsteady on his feet. 

It isn’t just Shiro’s completely white hair, or the fact that he’s been _dead_ and Keith didn’t even know (although that has something to do with it). It’s the unknown question hanging inside every atom and speck of dust that Keith is made up of. 

_Do you remember I love you?_

“You okay?” Keith asks, the words coming out gentle and soft. 

“Yeah,” Shiro answers and right away Keith knows it’s a lie. Shiro breaks quickly, sighing and turning around to face him with Keith’s hand still on his shoulder. Shiro’s eyebrows furrow and he tells Keith the truth, “I don’t know.” 

Keith doesn’t say anything, letting Shiro process what he’s feeling. “I missed so much.” Surprisingly, Shiro’s arms come up and wrap around Keith, pulling him into a hug that is so easy for Keith to join. Shiro’s head falls onto Keith’s shoulder with more ease than it could have if time hadn’t passed in a wobbly line for both of them. Shiro sighs again, says, “I missed _you_ so much.” 

All Keith can say is, “I missed you too.” All he can do is let Shiro stay on his shoulder and rest awhile. 

The inhabitants of the planet give them rooms to sleep in and the gravitational pull that Keith feels to Shiro, that thread of need, makes Keith follow him to his room. It makes him sit down tentatively next to Shiro as he lies on the bed. It makes Keith want to test the waters, throw a pebble into the stillness of it all and reach out and touch Shiro while he counts the ripples a new gesture can cause. 

He expects Shiro to tense, to let Keith know that the gentle hand on the side of his hip doesn’t belong there, but instead, Shiro settles with it. The ripples turn into a wake that lulls Shiro into relaxing more than he was before. 

The water stills again, this time from silence, from the stillness between them. The silence grows and it’s the loudest thing in the room until Shiro says, “I don’t want you to go.” The words crack like thunder and electrify Keith like lightning. 

Keith’s body buzzes with the current. “I won’t then,” is what he offers Shiro. He kicks off his shoes and slowly, carefully lies down next to him. 

The surprises keep coming and the wakes turn to waves when Shiro rolls towards him, turning Keith’s shoulder into a pillow. Keith’s running on instinct alone— instinct and the need to just keep Shiro safe— when he rolls over and wiggles just enough to wrap both his arms around Shiro, like a protective casing or maybe a safety net. 

The thread within him curls back up into its spool as Shiro’s breaths even out into sleep. 

_***_

The light of the moons is shining in Shiro’s eyes when Keith opens his. 

Shiro woke him softly and slowly, creating another set of gentle ripples with soft whispers of Keith’s name that sound unfamiliar coming out from between his lips. It’s another gesture that should be familiar but isn’t. 

“Yeah? You alright?” Keith asks, even though Shiro hasn’t said or done anything to make Keith think otherwise. 

“Keith,” this time Shiro’s whisper wavers just as unsteady as Keith had felt before, still feels now a little— even though there’s nothing about this moment that feels wrong. “I remember… what you said.” 

“Oh,” Keith manages after a heartbeat. His eyes close again as he struggles to stay still, to stay calm. He’s so ready to hear something he doesn’t want, he’s so ready for the tables to turn and for Shiro to be the one disappointing him. He doesn’t expect anything else, he doesn’t have room to. Shiro hasn’t spent years without Keith the same way Keith spent years without him. 

“I just wanted you to know that.” Shiro whispers, the period punctuating his sentence loud and clear. 

Keith opens his eyes and Shiro’s are still shining, focused brightly into his own. He hears Shiro swallow hard before he says, “and I wanted you to know that I love you too.” 

And that’s when Keith realizes that he _has_. Shiro spent God knows how long trapped in the astral plane, full of the purples and stars that make up the black lion’s consciousness. He’s spent time thinking and wondering alone—missing Keith the same way that Keith had missed him, apparently loving Keith the same way that Keith had loved him. 

“Shiro,” Keith says but that’s all. That’s all he says because Shiro’s lips are on his. Shiro’s kissing him, and it takes a moment to figure out because Keith has been too busy with _life_ and Shiro has been to busy with _dying_ to be kissing anyone. Their noses bump and it’s wet and maybe someone’s crying a little— maybe they both are (although they’ll never admit it). But they’re kissing, and kissing, and they keep kissing and figuring it out— quickly and efficiently and it feels like flying. It feels better than flying ever could. It feels safe. It feels like they’re coming home, even though neither of them have a home to speak of. It feels like making a home, right here, right now, right inside this kiss. 

Keith doesn’t know how long they’ve kissed when they part, but time doesn’t seem to be the same for them as it is for everyone else anyway. It’s been so long. They’ve both been so patient, waiting for this, dying for this, living for this. Shiro’s eyes are focused on Keith’s and his breath is hot on Keith’s lips. 

All Keith can think of is _patience yields focus_ and it makes him smile, quiet and special and something that’s just for the two of them. Shiro returns it, like he can see right into Keith’s thoughts, or maybe like he doesn’t even need to because this— this right here is enough of a reason to smile. 

They’re both still smiling when Keith leans in to kiss Shiro again. 

In the light of the moons outside the window, the only thing Keith feels is love. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you all enjoyed. I’m new here!


End file.
